The Great Pesticides Debate

The Great Pesticides Debate

Event Sections

Join POLITICO for The Great Pesticides Debate as two expert teams dive into the hot-button issue of pesticides regulation, coming head-to-head in the Oxford style to argue the motion: “Slashing pesticides use will prevent farmers from providing enough safe and affordable food”

Proposing Team

Herbert Dorfmann, MEP, Member of the Agriculture and Rural Development Committee

POLITICO’s The Great Pesticides Debate is presented by the European Crop Protection Association.

Our audience, deeply engaged in the issues of agriculture, health, environment and business, will fuel the debate by posing tough questions.

Bibliothèque Solvay - Rue Belliard 137, 1000 Brussels

Speakers

Margrete Auken, MEP, Member of the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety Committee

Margrete Auken MEP is a Danish member for the Socialistisk Folkeparti, part of the Greens-European Free Alliance (Greens/EFA) Group. She is a member of the European Parliament’s Environment, Public Health and Food Safety Committee. She was elected to the European Parliament in 2004. Before her election, she was a member of the Danish Socialist People’s Party from 1994-2004 and also member of the Danish Parliament from 1979-1990. During her time with the Danish Socialist People’s Party, she also served as member of the Presidency of the Danish Parliament. Since April 2004, she has been a member of the Executive Body of Denmark's Organisation for Nature Conservation.

Peter Clausing, Member of the Executive Board, PAN Germany

Peter Clausing has been a member of the Pesticide Action Network (PAN) Germany since 2014, and was elected to the executive board in 2015. From 1997 until his retirement in 2010, he was a toxicologist in the pharmaceutical industry. From 1994-1996, he worked as a postdoctoral scientist for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's National Center for Toxicological Research. In 1988, he became a board-certified toxicologist and held positions at two research institutes of former East Germany. Clausing graduated as an agronomist at the University of Leipzig and earned his doctoral degree in 1974. He has published 54 papers and four book chapters in the area of toxicology. Additionally, he has written two books on conflicts between the compatibility of agriculture and nature conservation. In his capacity as a member of the executive board, he has authored several of PAN Germany’s publications.

Herbert Dorfmann, MEP, Member of the Agriculture and Rural Development Committee

Herbert Dorfmann MEP is an Italian member of the European Parliament for the South Tyrolean People’s Party, part of the group of the European People’s Party (EPP). He is a member of the European Parliament’s Agriculture and Rural Development Committee and a Substitute member of the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety Committee. Dorfmann was elected to the European Parliament in 2009 and has been President of the European Parliamentary Association since 2014. He started his political career in 2005 with the South Tyrolean People’s Party as mayor of Feldthurns, his hometown. Previously, he directed the South Tyrol Farmers' Union for a duration of ten years. He also directed the agriculture department at the Chamber of Commerce of Bolzano. He started his career as a professor at the Agricultural College in Ora. Dorfmann studied agrarian sciences in Piacenza.

Linda Field has been at Rothamsted Research for many years and has been Head of the Biological Chemistry and Crop Protection Department since 2010. Her research interests are focused on understanding insecticide mode of action and resistance at the biochemical/molecular level. Field’s research group uses the latest genomic techniques to understand resistance and insecticide selectivity and seeks to apply this to better use of pesticides in the field through links with partners in the agronomy, farming and agro-chemical sectors. She has developed a wide knowledge of alternative pest control strategies, especially the use of chemical ecology approaches and including the use of GM technologies. The overall aim of Field’s department is to deliver effective and sustainable crop protection strategies which minimize the effects on non-targets, at a time when the need to deliver increasing crop yields and food security has never been greater.

Philippe Rothgerber, Fruit and Vine Grower, Rothgerber Farm

Philippe Rothgerber grows fruits and vines on his farm close to Strasbourg, France. In order to avoid food waste, he transforms nearly everything good into juices you should taste. He is the former president of FREDON Alsace, an active crop protection and environment farmer federation. A few years ago, together with another wine grower and a viticulture technician, he managed to register three different kinds of pheromone dispensers for French vineyards. He is disappointed about the decay of so-called Integrated Pest Management (IPM) and recently chose to convert his farm to an organic farm. He welcomes visitors to his farm to exchange ideas. Rothgerber studied at the University of Applied Sciences Zürich-Wädenswil in Switzerland to become an environmentally responsible grower.

Tom Short, County Chairman for Wicklow, Irish Farmers’ Association

Tom Short is a full-time arable and livestock farmer in East Wicklow, Ireland. His wife, Geraldine and their four teenage children help out on the family farm. In addition to farming his own land and carrying out some contracting, he also shares a farm with a number of other land owners. Short is a Master Farmer and was involved with the Farm Apprenticeship in training young farmers. Both Tom and Geraldine are heavily involved in the local farming, rural and sporting communities.

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Sponsors

The European Crop Protection Association (ECPA)

The European Crop Protection Association (ECPA) represents the interests of the crop protection industry at a European level. Its members include all major companies, SMEs and national associations across Europe. For more information: www.ecpa.eu

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